Rohit, 9, was the youngest winner in the inter-school championship that concluded at Azad Maidan yesterday. After his bout, he sat by the ringside, explaining hooks, jabs and upper cuts to mother Reena. Reena admitted she was apprehensive about letting her only son taking up the combat sport. ``But seeing his enthusiasm, we let him continue,'' she said.

The Standard IV student of St Sebastian School, Dabul, and other boys like him, would have played it safe hadn't Principal Fr James D'Silva entered their lives.

The tall, wiry priest came to Dabul three years ago, after a six-year term at St Francis Xavier, Kanjurmarg. Among the `habits' he packed in his suitcase, was one he had picked up on the way: Boxing. Under his guidance, the suburb school,as St Sebastian was to replicate later, reached the pinnacle of school boxing, clinching the overall championship in successive years.

At Sebastian, Fr D'Silva began from scratch, buying punching bags, gloves and gum teeth. ``I had picked up some tips by watching tournaments, and started coaching the boys,'' the priest told Express Newsline.

With the principal pulling the punches, winning the trust of parents was relatively easy. The Boxing Club was flooded with enthusiasts. In the first year, Sebastian finished runner-up in the school stakes, an aberration they soon corrected by bagging the overall title in 1998-99 and 99-2000. This year, Fr D'Silva roped in the services of coach Feroz Cooper, a boxing referee.

But the priest shakes his head at the overall picture. A few schools including his erstwhile nursery, St Francis Xavier, did not participate this year, and 23 Sebastian boxers did not get a bout, as they did not have an opponent. ``Usually, it is the individual in charge who sparksinterest in the children,'' the priest philosophises.